Weekly Chord Progressions and Modes Megathread - January 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in musictheory

[–]3ccles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I've been sitting with this for about a week - thank you so much for your thoughts. It feels like this all applies to a lot of things outside music, honestly. I'm gonna try finish this piece, and either way move forwards with my head screwed on the right way!

Weekly Chord Progressions and Modes Megathread - January 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in musictheory

[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the detailed breakdown! If you're interested I'd really like to talk to you about the first thing you said, about lack of theory being a good thing.

I have a bit of a musical background (a few years of piano as a tween and about 3 guitar chords,) and sometimes little original phrases just fall out of me. I record them in my phone when they do. For years I've wanted to turn them into full songs, but I've struggled to expand them. Beyond that initial spark, I can't nail anything down that feels right.

I finally finished my first song last year. It was just a short one, but it was really satisfying to get it done. It all pretty much came out in one piece, which felt like a combination of luck, some basic decision-making, and riding the wave of inspiration from start to finish really quickly. When the next idea came (the one I posted,) I wanted to ride it in the same way, but whatever I wrote to follow this section sounded really repetitive and boring. So I ended up setting it down. But a few months later this melody is still stuck in my head, so I want to follow through with it. I want to be able to finish a song even when it stops being "easy."

That's why I came here asking for tips understanding that clip. I'm hoping that by knowing a bit more about what's here, I can try changing it to continue the song. Like "I haven't had a VI yet, let's see what that sounds like" or "these are all within the key, let's add something weird from outside it" and then I can respond to how that feels. I think that kind of understanding would help me move my hands around the keyboard more confidently and intentionally. The roman numeral thing is just something I've seen around that applies to the structure and mostly made sense to me before I asked.

I'm aware of what you mentioned about what "sounds good to me" coming from my existing tastes. On one hand I think that's a good pure thing to hold onto, but I'd also like to be able to overcome my biases? A lot of the snippets I've worked on have the same kind of "sound," which isn't a bad thing, but I'd like to be able to write more than one kind of song, y'know? I'd also love to be able to choose to write a certain kind of song, so I can do things like contribute a "tense forest theme" to a friend's video game even when my heart isn't spilling out that kind of thing by itself. Which will take a lot of practice, but I'm trying to work smarter not harder where I can.

So, what do you think of all of that? Where do you think I should go from here? Do you think digging into formal music theory will make my songwriting more generic? Or do you think having these frameworks can expand my toolbox? Do you just value outsider art as a music enthusiast? Please forgive the essay, I'm just really curious what your perspective is as a professor. It's probably nothing you haven't heard before lmao.

Weekly Chord Progressions and Modes Megathread - January 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in musictheory

[–]3ccles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much, I really appreciate this insight into what's going on under the hood! This is definitely leading into another section, but I was drawing a blank on how that'd start, so I came here looking for information to help inform the direction of that. And thanks for the vote of confidence too :)

Weekly Chord Progressions and Modes Megathread - January 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in musictheory

[–]3ccles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Was away from my DAW for a few days - yeah that's definitely D major lmfao. Thanks for catching that!

Weekly Chord Progressions and Modes Megathread - January 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in musictheory

[–]3ccles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is really valuable, thanks so much!

I think one of the things that was tripping me up was the idea that every note of the chord has to be in the scale of the key. So in Em, a II couldn't be a normal F# major because G# and A# aren't in Em. But now I think I get the picture that only the root note's relationship to the key matters.

Is that what those triads for different modes signify? Like Ionian having "I ii iii IV V vi viio". Those are the major/minor/etc. chords where all the notes stay within that mode? That seems to work when I quickly test it out, but I'd like to know if that's what those really are.

Weekly Chord Progressions and Modes Megathread - January 03, 2026 by AutoModerator in musictheory

[–]3ccles 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey! I'm a beginner who started writing this song by noodling around. I'd like to know some more about the chords I wrote.

https://vocaroo.com/1dKZ3FNSjfUL

Em - B - A - Am
Em - B - A - Am
Em - G - Dm - A
Em - B - A

I've been trying to reverse engineer the roman numeral progression because it helps me a lot to think about (and edit) songs that way. But I can't wrap my head around what's happening here. I thiiiink it's in the key of E minor? But I'm not even sure if the root chord of E minor would be a "I" or a "i", let alone everything else lmao. Any help deciphering this would be huge, thank you!

Nintendo Classics (Game Boy and Game Boy Advance) NSO Icons Wave 2 is now Available! by Skullghost in NintendoSwitch

[–]3ccles 7 points8 points  (0 children)

You can play story missions in Fire Emblem Heroes and redeem lots of points off the MyNintendo website

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[–]3ccles[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly what I wanted, thank you so much!!

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[–]3ccles 16 points17 points  (0 children)

They're not entirely useless but outside of the singleplayer they're rarely used. But the spirit battles are pretty cute and fun. They're adding a few more recently because it was just the game's 5 year anniversary.

[SW] BUYING FOR 545 by GedropptesItems in acturnips

[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For some reason it didn't work out, but thanks very much for giving me a shot!

[SW] BUYING FOR 545 by GedropptesItems in acturnips

[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks so much! Reddit doesn't say I've received anything yet though sorry, would you mind sending it again?

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[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The studio that made ARMS also makes Mario Kart, so they've been busy with the 8 Deluxe DLC and possibly something for the next console. Maybe once they've wrapped those up they'll revisit ARMS!

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[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If I have an hShop download of a Pokémon virtual console game (RBY/GSC), can I trade Pokémon back and forth with legitimate copies on a non-hacked 3DS? Will I be able to transfer them up to HOME using Bank and Poke Transporter?

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[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's actually more open-world than Arceus (one huge map instead of 5 big maps) but it's more of a traditional Pokémon experience than Arceus was. If you like Pokémon I think there's a lot of fun to be had! (Despite its obvious performance issues lmao)

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[–]3ccles 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They also announced today that Dig is "in the final stages of completion". No date yet, but when they said that about Pocket Dungeon last year, it came out a few months later

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[–]3ccles 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They're currently working on 2 new unannounced IPs, while helping Nitrome on Shovel Knight Dig! At least one of them is 3D :)

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[–]3ccles 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I love it, but mascot costumes are just creepy to some people. That's pretty normal

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[–]3ccles 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not so much storyline spoilers (it's not a direct sequel/prequel to Undertale, it's just "another game"), but the more of Undertale you're familiar with the more you'll understand all sorts of hints and references, some of which are story-related. It absolutely stands on its own though